“You smell nice,” Camilla said, and, glancing at her, Dardanius would swear she was blushing, although the limited lighting made it impossible to be sure. As far as he could recall, nobody had ever complimented him on that particular quality before. He didn’t wear any scents or cologne, but he had showered right before getting dressed for the party, and his peppermint pine shower gel was fragrant.

“Thank you,” he replied, believing it was always polite to take a compliment as it was offered, without wondering what on earth a person was doing thinking about whether or not one smelled nice. Although now she had mentioned it, Danny noticed that Camilla had a vaguely flowery fragrance, that she had definitely worn before because it was familiar - and in the context of it being Camilla’s fragrance, not a generic perfume that anyone might have been wearing. “You do, too,” he said honestly, although again he felt out of his depth. This didn’t feel much like two friends who were just dancing together, but Danny couldn’t say he had a great deal of experience in dates of any kind prior to this evening.

Luckily, Camilla was amused by his reference to her altercation. “Yeah, I did,” she laughed, prompting Dardanius to chuckle, too. She called Lucien a moron, and Danny couldn’t agree more. He hadn’t ever had cause to feel much negativity towards a person before, and even though he knew that Lucien had repeatedly misgendered Holland, even after being corrected, Danny had still made excuses for the seventh year (in his mind, never aloud), which made it all the more surprising to him that Lucien had argued the point directly with Holland. Then he had sought trouble with Camilla, too. Danny literally had no choice but to dislike him now, which was a first for the fifth year. At least Camilla seemed to be unscathed from her encounter with him, aside from the detention she needed to serve. With Emmett also in detention for standing up to Lucien - on Holland’s behalf, no less - Dardanius couldn’t help but feel like he’d let the team down by refraining from any further involvement himself. He was essentially a peaceful person and, loathe as he was to freely admit it, he followed the rules (occasional after-curfew parties aside). This did, at least, make him exceptionally grateful that not everyone was like him. “I sort of lost it.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Danny replied with approval. The fact that Camilla had turned her wand on a seventh year was a little intimidating. Oddly, as the Lyra had occasionally noted when he’d found Rose intimidating in the past, he found that strangely exhilarating. He tried not to think about that particular disturbing insight as he felt his throat feel strangely dry again. “It’s good to lose control sometimes.” Merlin help him if it wasn’t happening to him right that moment.

The Ceti enjoyed dancing - not that she was excellent at it, though - quite a bit. She couldn't suppress the excitement when Danny agreed to, at least, attempt it. Camilla had been hanging with Danny ... more

Camilla claimed to be getting better at loosening up. Dardanius felt he could make the same claim. He didn’t think he’d be hexing anyone any time soon (although neither would he rule anything out... more

Camilla wasn't sure they could categorize what they had been doing for the past few minutes as dancing - they had been swaying back and forth, excitedly close together -, but she definitely had an... more

A bit of swaying, a bit of stepping, some limited turning around, and Danny supposed it would have been difficult to really mess up his very basic approach to dancing. So even though he knew Camilla... more

Kissing was a topic Camilla did not have much experience with - with the exception of a boy back home during their last summer vacations -, but she had enough experience to know that the second Danny ... more